More tremors likely following Irish Sea earthquake – seismic network

29 May 2013

Image of the Irish Sea via Wikimedia Commons. We have circled the location of this morning's earthquake off the Welsh coast

Further tremors in the Irish Sea and North Wales are likely in the coming days following the 3.8-magnitude earthquake in that area early this morning that rattled residents all the way over to Ireland, the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) has said.

The earthquake happened at 4.16am GMT, with its epicentre about 97km south-east of Dublin and 2km off the coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, Wales, said INSN director Tom Blake.

Blake also said today’s earthquake was moderate enough to have relieved any pressure built up in the region and it was unlikely to be a precursor to a stronger earthquake.

“A 2.3-magnitude earthquake struck this very same area on 7 February and since then there have been a number of other tremors building up to this morning’s event,” said Blake, from the School of Cosmic Physics in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS).’

A concentration of tremor activity down the west coast of Britain has occurred in the past two months, with the most recent (2.9-magnitude) tremor shaking Acharacle, Highland (Scotland) on 18 May, said Blake.

“It is unlikely that the magnitude of today’s earthquake will be exceeded in the Irish Sea in the coming days but aftershocks can be expected in the hours and days ahead, although many will be too weak to be felt,” he said.

This morning’s earthquake measured at a depth of 8km and a smaller 1.7-magnitude tremor followed four minutes later, at a depth of 3km.

Residents in Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Wexford reported feeling the Earth move, as did residents of the town of Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula, and in Caernarfon, Abersoch, Bangor, Holyhead, Southport, and the Isle of Man.

INSN seismic stations as far away as Donegal, Galway and Valentia, Co Kerry, recorded the earthquake.